Research a Social Issue: First NationsToday is a significant day in Canadian history; The Truth and Reconciliation committee is completing its work at a conference being held in Edmonton. While Canada has a reputation of being a peaceful and noble nation, there is buried deep within our history a very dark truth of racism, hatred and violence. Our history has many sad episodes and memories. One of the saddest is the history of our First Nations people of Canada. The aboriginal peoples in North America were a relatively peaceful, self-sustaining community with many positive attributes, beliefs, religion, languages, and cultures. From the Kwakiutl in British Columbia, The Blackfoot in the Prairies, to the Beothuk in Newfoundland; the cultural diversity was enormous and complex, with the economy being the land, bison, fishing and survival solely from the resources of the land and sea. On June 24 1497, British explorer John Cabot made landfall in North America and claimed the land for King Henry VII. This day marks the beginning of a long and mournful conquest of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada by the Europeans. The British explorers fought with the First Nations to take their land and resources as well as exploited their generosity. Knowing the First Nations economy and social structure, the British devised strategies to overcome the Aboriginal peoples and take their land and goods. The British understood that the First Nations economy depended heavily on hunting bison in western Canada. The British encouraged hunters and settlers to hunt as many bison as possible, destroying the basis of the First Nations economy. This left the First Nations people facing starvation and in a much weakened position. It was at this point that the British offered treaties to the First Nations with the British taking most of the land and resources, and leaving the poorest land as reserved land to the First Nations, as well as healthcare and hunting rights and under the…